Bob Dole on Education

Former Republican Senator (KS)

Voted consistently for voluntary school prayer

His adviser had strategic goals for the announcement in 1995. 1st to stake out the message ground of Dole as a conservative. 2nd, to show the party activists and the media that the Dole campaign knew what it was doing.

When Dole had balked on some
conservative message material an adviser had said, yes, some people are going to accuse you of pandering. But that's all right. They accused George Bush of doing the same thing.

There isn't anything that you're saying that you don't believe, the
adviser said at one point, and there isn't anything that you are saying that arguably isn't supported by your record. You voted consistently for voluntary school prayer, for example. And you, voted against the creation of the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, which in the speech he said he wanted to abolish. There's nothing here that's inconsistent. It's inconsistent with what the media wants you to be because they want to see you as a centrist, so yeah, there's going to be a little tension.

Abolish four departments: Commerce, Energy, Education, & HUD

To explain in specific terms what reining in the federal government might mean, staff drafted a speech for Dole to call for the abolition of 4 departments--Commerce, Energy, Education, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Not just cutting or trimming but closing. Of the 83 ideas they had presented to the focus groups, it had been one of the very least popular proposals. But it was the most concrete.

Dole gave the speech Friday, March 10, 1995, before a newspaper group. He dropped some of the rhetorical flourishes, but stuck to the theme and called for the abolition of the 4 departments.
The speech had good media pickup, putting Dole ahead of Gramm and Alexander.